Create meetup in Berlinchevron_right
Select a place on the map to change the location.
I want to meet
Verified required?
want to meet at fmd_good Steeped
want to meet at fmd_good Hole in One
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
explore Berlin Guides
Berlin Hidden Gems (2026)
kirstin
Berlin on a Budget: Tips 2026
annette
Where to Stay in Berlin (2026)
frieda
3 Days in Berlin: Itinerary 2026
rabeakurth
Things to Do in Berlin (2026)
viktoria
Best Food in Berlin (2026)
bar_chart Trends in Berlin
How to Prevent a Colleague Who Scammed Multiple People from Repeating This in Future Jobs?
I recently experienced a difficult situation with a colleague and could use some advice. A new colleague at my company asked me for money to avoid getting kicked out of his apartment. I… Hi everyone,
I recently experienced a difficult situation with a colleague and could use some advice. A new colleague at my company asked me for money to avoid getting kicked out of his apartment. I lent him the money, but he kept postponing repayment. After repeatedly asking him to pay me back, I finally made the difficult decision to involve HR.
It turns out that this colleague had borrowed money from multiple people at our company and did the same at his previous company. Fortunately, my manager had him sign a document acknowledging that he owes us money, and HR promptly fired him.
My questions are:
How can we prevent him from repeating this behavior at other companies?
What legal procedures should we consider to protect ourselves and potentially warn future employers about his behavior?
Thanks in advance for any advice or insights!
File a police report for fraud. Berlin police handle this kind of thing at the Landeskriminalamt, and if he's done it at multiple companies, that starts to look like a pattern of deception rather than just a personal loan gone bad. The debt acknowledgment your manager got is useful evidence.
For the reference question: your company's standard practice is probably just confirming employment dates, which is the safe route. But if you're in a specific Berlin industry like the startup scene around Mitte or Kreuzberg, the informal network is actually more effective. People talk at events like the Berlin Tech Meetups or over coffee at Silo Coffee near Warschauer. Just keep it verbal and factual.
yeah the police route is worth considering but be realistic about what'll happen. berlin police are swamped and a few thousand euro loan disputes between colleagues isn't exactly their priority unless there's a clear fraud pattern with fake documents involved. the acknowledgment letter helps but it's basically a civil matter.
what i'd actually do is check if he's listed on any industry blacklists or forums. the berlin freelancer community has a few private telegram groups and slack channels where people share warnings about clients and colleagues who pull this stuff. it's not exactly legal but it's how things actually work here.
also worth mentioning to your HR that they should do proper reference checks going forward. a quick call to his previous company's HR might have caught this before he started. most places won't volunteer bad info but if you ask directly "did this person have any issues borrowing money from colleagues" they can answer truthfully without risking anything
honestly, beyond telling his previous employer what happened (which they probably already know since hr fired him), there's not much legal that'll stick. german labor law is pretty strict about what you can share with future employers without risking a defamation lawsuit. you can mention the debt acknowledgment document if someone calls for a reference, but most companies just confirm dates and job titles these days.
if you really want to warn others, word of mouth in your industry circles in berlin is way more effective than trying any legal route. tech scene here is smaller than people think, and stories like this travel fast between companies on torstraße or around the alexanderplatz startups. just be careful not to put anything in writing that could be traced back to you.
also, maybe suggest your company adds a clause in future contracts about lending money to coworkers being against policy. it's a weird thing to have to specify but clearly needed after this
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.
load 1 more reply